That head looks excellent, think i'm going to have to do this

Where did you get the caliper rebuild kit?

Where did you get the caliper rebuild kit?

 

There's loads of kits available on eBay mate. Just make sure you measure your piston diameter to make sure.

Tonight's update.

 

Started by blasting the block down with a wire drill attachment. Unfortunately this was a complete nightmare of a job and ended up taking a couple of hours by the time I'd cleaned it with brake cleaner. Block was in a bit of a state as you can see...

 

 

Much cleaner after...

 

 

 

 

 

Once it was all as clean as I could get it, I cracked open the engine enamel. This stuff was actually really thin and spread so easily. Used a very small brush for the awkward bits so that the job was neat. Paint is still drying here, but looks a million times better...

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately the worst side of the engine needs another coat. So will do another one on both sides tomorrow, as well as prep and paint some other parts such as the oil filter/cooler setup.

Edited 29 October, 20178 yr by alex_e3

Reminds me of the many many man hours I spend rebuilding and detailing my old 306 GTi-6 Engine. Had a fair few bits glass blasted on that to get them as good as I could

 

Reminds me of the many many man hours I spend rebuilding and detailing my old 306 GTi-6 Engine. Had a fair few bits glass blasted on that to get them as good as I could

And it was still a heap after all that work!

Engine looks good now!!

This weekends job after work i think. Do you think hammerite will withstand the temps etc?

Engine looks good now!!

This weekends job after work i think. Do you think hammerite will withstand the temps etc?

 

I haven't used Hammerite for the engine itself. I've used proper high temp engine enamel. Hopefully should be fine. Preparation is the key as they say

Reminds me of the many many man hours I spend rebuilding and detailing my old 306 GTi-6 Engine. Had a fair few bits glass blasted on that to get them as good as I could

 

 

 

Looks awesome that! Like something Gramps would do   This explains a lot about your relationship ha ha!

Yeah i planned on using hammerite. If it would work that is.

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Update.

 

First job tonight was to give the block a second coat of engine enamel. Took a fair while with all the edges and webbing to do properly. Looking well now...

 

 

 

Next up I took the parts I needed to clean up to one side...

 

 

 

Took me ages to blast what I did with wire attachments. Still have the oil filter housing, engine mounting and alternator to do tomorrow morning.

 

 

I cleaned up and masked the oil cooler and turbo. For tonight I'm doing one side of them - will flip them over tomorrow...

 

 

 

Aux bracket all cleaned up ready for paint...

 

 

 

All parts for tonight sprayed and painted...

 

 

 

Big day tomorrow, as have a mammoth amount to get done if I'm to stand a chance of finishing it in time! Will go down there first thing and blast and paint the rest of the parts. Off to the scrappy to try and find some front arch liners and a couple of other small bits of wiring then. Engine will start to be built back up by the end of the day.

Edited 29 October, 20178 yr by alex_e3

Reminds me of the many many man hours I spend rebuilding and detailing my old 306 GTi-6 Engine. Had a fair few bits glass blasted on that to get them as good as I could

The 306 gti engine was a piece of art. I fitted the inlet and exhaust manifold plus the cams to my 1.8 16v.

Great progress Alex. Are you coming to the snetterton track day?

Great progress Alex. Are you coming to the snetterton track day?

 

 

Unfortunately i won't be able to, as I work term-time and it's doubtful I'd be able to get the day off :(

Today's update.

 

Spent at least 3 hours in total today blasting and painting components. The alternator in particular was a pain in the backside due to all the intricacies on the casing. So first off prepped everything...

 

 

 

 

The oil filter housing was finished in engine enamel, and the alternator and air con. pump were finished in Hammerite satin...

 

 

Gave the exhaust manifold and oil cooler a coat on the other side...

 

 

Exhaust manifold hasn't come out too bad   Note the new connections for the EGT probe and a spare one on the EGR blanking plate...

 

 

First thing tomorrow I'll be giving the black parts another coat.

 

 

Next up finally moved onto starting to put the engine back together! Nice new 2 holed Elring head gasket...

 

 

Head on and everything ready to be tightened...

 

 

Head bolts have been tightened up to the first 90 degree stage due to the engine moving on the floor too much. Two people helped to hold it just to get the first 90! So the final stage will be done once it's sat back in the car. Engine looks pretty all painted up ...

 

 

Next I prepared the tappets by popping them in the vice with soft jaws and a socket and squeezed out all the oil...

 

 

Tappets all cleaned up and new Glyco cam bearings ready to go...

 

 

Tappets and bearings lubed up with Redline Assembly Lube...

 

 

Cam was cleaned up and lubed then popped in with a new end seal and top bearings. All tightened up...

 

 

I cleaned the exhaust studs up then...

 

 

Popped my new plastic cam bottom cover on, cam sensor on, cam pulley on and locked in place, engine lift brackets cleaned and on, studs wound in with threadlock, and injector loom back in...

 

 

 

 

Another big day tomorrow with lots and lots to do!

Edited 29 October, 20178 yr by alex_e3

Loving how clean everything is now

That looks amazing. Can't wait to see this at castle Combe

Update.

 

First task was giving everything a second coat of paint. Took over 2 hours just to do this. Pretty frustrating that I'm losing all that time doing stupid little things like that!

 

 

Next up I went about timing the engine up. So first thing, new water pump in place...

 

 

New tensioner as per my Gates kit...

 

 

I'd previously locked the top end, so I brought the bottom end up to TDC and locked in place...

 

 

The timing belt pulley was refitted and hand tightened with the slotted holes in the centre...

 

 

Timing belt slipped on (quite tricky actually!) and tensioned up and the tensioner torqued up...

 

 

Removed the locking tools and turned it over a couple of times and all locked back in place ok.

 

Covers cleaned up both sides and back on...

 

 

Bottom alternator pulley cleaned up, back on and tightened to spec...

 

 

 

Turbo was next to come back on. New gasket and nuts all torqued up...

 

 

I'm gonna re-do the return pipe for it tomorrow. I was never 100% happy with it before. Much easier now the engine is out!

 

 

Cleaned up the gearbox backing plate and popped it in place. Then fitted the new flywheel on. Had someone to help by holding the crank pulley bolt so that I could tighten them up correctly. All on...

 

 

Clutch lined up and on...

 

 

Clutch setup is an uprated jobby from Xman. Should hold my torque no problem

 

 

Next up I started on the oil filter housing. Went to fit the thermostatic plate and reassemble the housing. I screwed the adaptor into the original housing...

 

 

Cleaned up the bottom connection and took out the seal to check and clean it...

 

 

Next up I came to put it together and was having some trouble trying to figure out how it goes! After much faffing about, I now realise there's a problem with the thermostatic plates unfortunately :(  The plate only fits one way due to the head of the adaptor bolt, and it seems that the seal is on the wrong side of the plate. So an email to Darkside in a bit to hope they can sort it asap. Here's the problem...

 

 

 

So I'm fitting the housing for now. First up refitted crank sensor...

 

 

Oil filter housing now in place with new gasket (thanks to Kev for giving me the new one he didn't need for his rebuild). Nice new Bosch filter in there...

 

 

New thermostat fitted...

 

 

Freshly painted aux bracket bolted up...

 

 

 

That's as far as I got tonight! Carrying on in the morning. Want to get the engine sitting in the car at least by tomorrow.

Edited 29 October, 20178 yr by alex_e3

That's a bit of a **** up!

Yeah I can't say I'm overly impressed to be honest mate. Even more annoying is that it's a group buy that I organised, so everyone else needs to check theirs too. It's a shame, as it all went very smoothly up until this point!

 

I'll be miffed if they don't get a replacement to me asap. As it'll stop me finishing the car otherwise. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, as they've been very good in all fairness.

Have you a picture of your incorrect one mate? I don't want to take my car apart to find out the same thing

It's in the picture above mate. The seal on the thermostatic plate should be on the opposite side.

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Update.

 

Ok, so some of the day got taken up with email conversations with Darkside trying to come to a solution on the oil cooler problem. All sorted now hopefully.

 

When I eventually got down to my unit I first set about cleaning the gearbox up with wire drill attachments. This was an awful job and took about 2 hours to do. Box looks much much better already though...

 

 

Box is the long ratio FSM box...

 

 

Installed my new input shaft seal...

 

 

New hydraulic concentric slave cylinder fitted...

 

 

Offered the box up and amazingly it slotted straight on without any hassle. First time a box has ever done that to me!...

 

 

Next I got the engine crane out and hoisted the lot in the air. I made sure I had a couple of bolts holding the box on slack. Then I cleaned it with brake cleaner and masked it up...

 

 

3 coats of high temp aluminium colour paint later...

 

 

 

 

I tried to squeeze in the small shim into the end of the main shaft, but there was no play and hence no room. So just popped the original circlip back in and tapped on my new end cover...

 

 

New diff seals were installed...

 

 

Both driveshaft cups were installed into the diff. A job that was tougher than expected due to having to keep high pressure on them whilst screwing in the bolt. I also cleaned up all the bolts for the box and installed them, along with cleaning up the shifter tower. I spent a while cleaning up the starter motor too. All this was installed. This is how it looked before I left tonight...

 

 

 

 

Before I left I started to clean out the inside of my inlet manifold. I'd had it powdercoated, and despite the guy clearly being told to cover the holes up, the damn thing was filled with powdercoated sand. Not impressed! So I had to use the original rubber gasket and create a makeshift blanking plate so that the end was blanked off...

 

 

The entire manifold was then filled with strong thick oven cleaner to soak overnight. This was after just 10 minutes of the stuff being in...

 

 

 

So that's it for today. Tomorrow I'll be down there after work. I have to fit some new anti-roll bar collars due to the original ones threading after trying to torque them up. Then I have a few bits to do on the engine - clean up the sump, drop the oil and fit my new 1/8" NPT adaptor sump plug and install my oil temp sender in it, clean a few bits in the bay, bolt on my freshly powdercoated back panel, re-do turbo oil return. After these jobs have been done I plan to bolt on the engine and gearbox mounts and get the engine sitting in the car once again!

 

Time is really against me at the minute, but I refuse to do half-a-job on it. It's looking like the car will be MOT'd again next Monday. Which leaves me 4 days to do over 500 miles to bed the clutch in before Combe!!!

Edited 29 October, 20178 yr by alex_e3

Ok, so I've hit somewhat a stumbling block with this...

 

I got diagnosed with a detached retina today, so have to go for an emergency operation on Thursday. Therefore I won't be able to work on this for a fair while. Combe is obviously cancelled.

 

Typical bloody timing that this happens when the car is in a million pieces...

Ah man that is bad news. All the best for the surgery mate

Thanks Charlie - appreciate that. Hopefully all being well I'll catch up with people at another meet soon